The present invention relates to methods and systems for providing help information for telephone sets.
With the proliferation of advanced calling features, some individuals may find it difficult to remember how to activate and/or deactivate the features. For example, some individuals may have difficulty remembering that *66 initiates a repeat dialing feature, and *86 cancels the repeat dialing feature.
In an attempt to overcome this difficulty, some new telephone sets have keys dedicated to perform advanced calling functions. For example, some telephone sets may have a key dedicated to initiating a three-way calling feature, and a key dedicated to initiating a call forwarding feature.
While having feature-dedicated keys overcomes the need to remember feature codes (such as *66 and *86), some services such as three-way calling and call forwarding require a sequence of user-initiated actions to implement the feature. Some individuals may have difficulty remembering the sequence of actions to implement each feature.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,835,127 to Booth et al. discloses a telephone having a help button. The help button may be used to provide a help menu providing explanations to be read by a user.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,831,598 to Kauffert et al. discloses an ISDN (Integrated Services Digital Network) terminal capable of displaying a textual or acoustic explanation of a function key. In a disclosed implementation, a short actuation of a function key causes the function to be executed, and a longer actuation of the function key causes function key information to be provided. In another disclosed implementation, a first actuation of a function key causes function information to be provided, and a second actuation of the function key causes execution of the function.
Some facsimile machines have a dedicated help key. In response to a depression of the help key, a list of basic operating procedures is printed by the facsimile machine.